Girls playoff basketball • D1
TV: ‘Gold Rush’ star talks life, fame • E1 MARCH 6, 2012
TUESDAY 75¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Prineville power upgrade to be hastened
Push made to scrap traps
By Duffie Taylor The Bulletin
A project to expand Prineville’s power capacity for current and future data centers has been put on the fast track. In an effort to accommodate the city’s burgeoning data center industry, the Bonneville Power Administration, with help from Pacific Power and the Central Electric Cooperative, will finish an upgrade of the Ponderosa substation six months ahead of schedule. The new completion date for the project is January 2013, said BPA spokesman Doug Johnson on Monday. Johnson said the project will increase the city’s transmission capacity by 400 megawatts, which is the energy equivalent of about 292,000 homes. The power company’s decision comes weeks after Apple purchased $5.6 million worth of land in Crook County. Facebook already has a 300,000-square-foot data center in Prineville and has started construction on a second facility. State and local officials have been working with BPA for months to ensure that Prineville can meet the power needs of the facilities once they are in operation. The upgrade will provide enough power for the two companies as well as “accommodate normal load growth for the next decade,” Johnson said. “It’s wonderful news,” said Crook County Judge Mike McCabe, adding that the accelerated project date gives Apple the go-ahead to start construction as soon as possible. “That’s 150 to 400 construction jobs in the very foreseeable future,” McCabe said. Rep. Greg Walden, RHood River, also expressed support for the expedited end date in a news release. “It shows other companies interested in building data centers in the region that we are open for business,” Walden stated. See Power / A5
By Lauren Dake The Bulletin
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Diana Levey, 71, of Bend, demonstrates the tool and technique necessary to open one type of trap Monday night at a meeting in Bend as part of the TrapFree Oregon movement. Last month, Levey and a friend freed the friend’s dog from a trap. Now Levey says she carries a range of tools on her horse to be ready to open traps.
• Trappers, though, say their tradition and purpose are poorly understood By Dylan J. Darling The Bulletin
A new push to end trapping in the state is building in Central Oregon. About 60 people gathered Monday night in Bend for the first official meeting of what’s being called the “Bend Action Arm” of TrapFree Oregon. “I’ve got to speak for the animals because they can’t speak for themselves,” Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, one of the founders of the group, said before the meeting. The group started in early January after one of Hardwicke Olivieri’s neighbors freed a coyote from a trap near their homes between Bend and Sisters, then got into an argument with the trapper who’d set it. Last month state wildlife managers received reports of six dogs caught in traps in Central
Oregon, adding momentum to the movement. The TrapFree Oregon meeting came just days after trappers from around the Northwest came to Prineville for an annual fur sale, where they sold pelts to buyers who then sell them to garment makers in China, Germany, Russia and elsewhere.
Trappers at the sale said opposition to trapping comes from people who don’t understand its tradition or purpose. Matt Smith, 39, vice president of the Cherry Creek Ranch, said he traps wild animals to stop them from harming livestock or other wild animals. See Traps / A4
Overhead bins get bigger By Joshua Freed The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Fliers can stop sharpening their elbows. Overhead bins are getting bigger. Packed planes and a high volume of carry-ons are forcing airlines to expand the space above passenger’s heads. United and Delta are the latest airlines to replace or upgrade bins so they hold
MON-SAT
U|xaIICGHy02329lz[
more luggage. And engineers at Boeing are designing jet interiors with today’s bulkier luggage in mind. It’s a chance to placate passengers who feel like they’re thrown into a roller derby every time they board a plane. Because of fees on checked bags, more passengers are bringing carry-ons, which are growing in size. See Carry-on / A4
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 109, No. 66, 36 pages, 7 sections
The Associated Press
Workers for AMR, the parent company for American Airlines, install larger bins for carry-on luggage on a Boeing 737 in Tulsa, Okla. The airline’s new 737s will hold 48 more bags than the planes they are replacing, although they have 24 more seats, too.
INDEX Business Calendar Classified
B1-4 E3 G1-4
SALEM — Shortly before 9 p.m. Monday night, the doors to both the Senate and House chambers swung open and lawmakers broke into applause, marking the end of the state’s first-ever constitutionally mandated legislative session, which will likely be remembered for reforming the state’s education and health care systems. The session was expected to last 29 days, but went for 34, one day shy of the final deadline. On Monday evening, lawmakers approved the final big-ticket items IN necessary before heading home, voting on foreclosure-protection bills, SALEM the budget and achievement compacts for schools and universities. Protecting homeowners facing foreclosures became a contentious point of the abbreviated session, stuck for weeks in a partisan tug-of-war. House Democratic Leader Tina Kotek, DPortland, said the passage of the foreclosureprotection legislation was a sign that “sometimes people just do the right thing.” The measure, Senate Bill 1552, aims to stop “dual track,” in which homeowners are foreclosed upon even as they work on loan modifications in an effort to keep their property. It will also require lenders to meet with both homeowners and neutral, third-party mediators before they can foreclose. The annual session’s primary focus: re-balance the state’s budget. Dealing with a $200 million hole since the 2011 session, budget writers used, in part, onetime money and projected future savings to buffer against the drop. The budget avoids some earlier worst-case scenarios. Oregon State Police troopers will keep their jobs, funding for most education programs, including K-12, will stay at the current level, and there won’t be any prison closures. See Session / A4
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Jim Soares, a trapper from Wallowa, left, talks with Don Nichols, of Canby, about furs he brought to a fur sale Sunday at the Crook County Fairgrounds in Prineville. “You don’t get rich trapping fur, but you can make a little money,” says Nichols. Nichols says most trappers get involved because they enjoy it as a sport.
AIRLINES
We use recycled newsprint
Session wraps in a flurry of votes
Comics E4-5 Community E1-6 Crosswords E5, G2
Editorials C4 Local News C1-6 Obituaries C5
THE BIRTH OF A JOKE
2 months of work to get a laugh that lasts just seconds By Jason Zinoman New York Times News Service
NEW YORK — The night after Christmas, the comedian Myq Kaplan did something most people would find terrifying. He told around 20 minutes of new jokes to a packed audience. “You’re supposed to lay down your coat for a lady: that was a thing,” he said, speaking rapidly at the Broadway Comedy Club in Midtown Manhattan. “If there was a puddle, and a lady was like, ‘I don’t want to walk across a puddle,’ well, let me put my jacket down, because the bottom of your shoe is more important than my whole jacket.” Despite earning a decent laugh, this was a work in progress: wordy and a bit imprecise. An hour later at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, his fourth gig that night, he refined the joke, more patiently establishing the framework as a comparison between chivalry past and present, adding a crisper point of view. “No one sees a guy with a dirty jacket and says, ‘Gentleman,’” he said. “They’re like, ‘Homeless man.’” Louder laugh. Kaplan saw potential, later describing the chivalry joke as his favorite new one. See Joke / A5
TODAY’S WEATHER Sports D1-4 Stocks B2-3 TV & Movies E2
Mostly cloudy High 34, Low 13 Page C6
TOP NEWS IRAN: Obama, Netanyahu talk, A3 GOP: Last push before big day, A3